


This is Home

by Bloody_Destination



Series: Dark Ace Series of Connected Drabbles [13]
Category: Storm Hawks
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-07-10 12:24:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19905679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloody_Destination/pseuds/Bloody_Destination
Summary: Ace and Lark settle, as promised, on a goat farm.





	This is Home

A year has passed since Cyclonia issued their decree of surrender and all of Atmos was free at last. None truer than the little Terra, hidden amongst many other little Terra. On that Terra is a goat farm, tended to by a brother and a sister and that is all anybody actual knows. But it is a peaceful little Terra, that sells its milk and barters for goods like any other little Terra in that sector of Atmos.

Ace has grown to like it here. It wasn’t such a great idea to put an injured man and a girl who’s never even seen a farm before in such circumstances, but he enjoys the quiet. He enjoys that he no longer has to fight, and most of all, he enjoys how happy his sister is.

Lark has taken to farming like she did to her Crystals. Animals love her and her abilities with Crystals have enhanced their crops to make the surrounding farmers jealous. Above all else, Lark enjoys the sun. Cyclonia had been clouded nearly every day since she was born and had only ever seen the first drop of sun after their grandmother had died.

She goes to school now too, which Ace is thankful that she didn’t put up a fuss over, like he had when he was young. In fact, she was excited to attend school. It was especially easy to get her into attendance when Aerrow personally said she was an official member of the Storm Hawks to the headmaster. No one asked questions after that.

The Storm Hawks visit every few days, on occasion every few weeks if they are incredibly busy. They bring back supplies. Considering Ace’s face is so well known, and Ace won’t let Lark out of his sight, they can’t get it themselves. They also bring back news.

It is mostly good news: “The Council said they’d agree to hear your case, both of your cases and even willing to offer a full pardon if everything checks out.”

Other times, it’s not so good news: “There are some Cyclonian remnants running around on Terra Script. We might not be back for a few weeks.”

They get by, though and Ace is truly satisfied for once in his life. Aerrow has gotten it in his head Ace needs to be reminded that Lark isn’t his only family. Not anymore. The fur ball, Radarr has even started to grow fond of Ace again and it annoys him because the thing tracks fur over his clean floors.

Ace still hasn’t gotten around to that talk Aerrow had eluded to, back on the day of Cyclonia’s defeat. He’s spoken very little about Lightning, mostly because it isn’t his right to talk about the man, not after what he did to him. Aerrow deserves to hear about him though, but Ace had hoped he’d go to Harrier or Starling. Thankfully, Aerrow hadn’t asked, not yet at least. He doesn’t know what he would say when that time finally comes.

Ace doesn’t mind that he can’t really leave the little Terra he’s come to call home in the last year. It has everything he could ever and has ever wanted.

Now all he’s got to do is get used to this budding relationship between his little sister and the Storm Hawks’ Crystal Mage. He likes to think it’s just an infatuation, but it’s clearly become much more than that and his baby sister is only fifteen and he can’t deal with the little girl he’s only just gotten to know, already growing up.

But she’s promised to stay in school. She’s promised to graduate, and only then would she consider joining the Storm Hawks. Ace had said the same thing when he was placed in school. And she’s smart, too, and they already want to place her in advanced classes and three years of school are quickly turning into only two and maybe even less.

Aerrow only laughs at him when he brings it up, “You could always join the Storm Hawks with her. By the time she graduates, we’ll have you pardoned of all crimes and a free man to travel the Atmos. You can reestablish yourself as a Sky Knight again. We already got a lot of your old allies on our side. Starling is actually really looking forward to seeing you again.”

“Can you please stop telling my sob story to every man, woman and child you run into.” Ace mutters under his breath.

“Don’t forget that it’s this sob story that is getting you pardoned. Everyone loves to hear it anyway.” Aerrow laughs at his misfortune.

There is a snort from the doorway of the kitchen, “You mean you love to tell how your brother is the Dark Ace and that through the power of love you convinced him to save Atmos.”

Piper and Lark walk in, both with equally red blushes while they are holding hands.

“Not true, Piper!” He joins their merry band of blushing and Ace rolls his eyes, “Hey, Lark. How was school?”

The girl smiles brightly, “It’s been satisfactory thus far. Mister Phoebus has been tutoring me recently and he says if I keep up with my studies then I can test into upper level classes next year.”

“That’s great!” Aerrow goes in for a high-five and Lark returns it readily. She used to be confused by the gesture, had been so confused the first time until Finn described the concept of a ‘high-five’ to her.

It is instances like this that have Ace regretting the fact that his little sister didn’t have a normal upbringing. She’s getting used to this, though and it is the reason Ace wants to keep her here for as long as possible. It is also the reason he plans to stay here when she inevitably joins the Storm Hawks. She’ll need a place to come back to, to be normal and not the former Master Cyclonis and not a Storm Hawk, but a place where she can just be Lark.

He had that in Mimi, a long time ago. He didn’t know it at the time, but he grew to appreciate the normality that her little home, with his room and the small kitchen and herself, and then later, Aerrow, was to him. He wants to be that for Lark and even the other Storm Hawks. He’ll be their normal if that is what all he can do. He doesn’t think he can be a Sky Knight ever again. Not after what he did, but he can give the Sky Knights back something where they have given him everything.

“How is Cyclonia doing?” Lark asks, her voice icy and they must have already gotten all of the pleasantries out of the way why he was internally brooding.

“Your half-brothers are still busy tearing each other apart for the throne.” Aerrow says awkwardly, in a way they both know he’s hiding something and then the two look at Piper and she’s doing that thing where she scratches her neck and looks to the right, also like she’s hiding something, “Alright, well, you see. It still _appears_ as if the Cyclonian princes are fighting each other, but there have been some coordinated attacks recently by Talons, as if someone is commanding them. So, either there is a new player in the game, or the Cyclonian princes are only acting like they are still fighting to divert suspicion.”

“We can’t really be sure.” Piper cuts in, “Considering it’s been impossible to get through the Cyclonian boarder.”

With all of the Talons within Cyclonian territory, that is over a thousand troops, just on one Terra. It makes sense for crossing the boarder to be nearly impossible. Lark takes on this look that just says she blames herself, even after she’d promised not to feel guilty for leaving her people in the hands of power-hungry brothers and a civil war in the making.

“Is there anything-,”

Aerrow stops her before she can dig herself into a hole, “I already know what you’re going to ask and no. We need you here. We need you safe and studying so that one day you can join us on the Condor and then you can do some good.”

They stay until morning and Ace finally knows what Mimi felt like, having to watch her family leave nearly as soon as she gets them back. One day, he will have to watch Lark leave every time. Just as Mimi had to watch him go when the time came.

But for now, all Ace has to watch is Lark hope on her own skimmer, not yet decorated with the Sky Hawks’ logo, but built by their expert mechanic and given extra ‘umf’ by Ace, himself. He knows she’ll be safe but worries all the same as he kisses the top of her head and tells her to have a good day at school.

That same day, when he’s finally going through the supplies Aerrow and the others brought, he realizes they’ve forgotten some of the vegetables their little farm doesn’t have the proper soil to grow. It was also ingredients he had planned to use tonight and one of Lark’s favorites. He had already promised her he’d make it, so he decides, when school lets out, he’ll pick her up and they’d fly to the market a few Terra’s over.

Ace has only been to the market a few times, twice, since arriving on the Terra. He wears a cloak to start with and a scarf, and just for good measure, he lets Lark do most of the talking before he pays for everything. It works out in the end and Lark could probably do it herself, but he doesn’t like letting her go so far without someone with her.

Usually, Ace would have checked what supplies they brought before they left. If anything was missing, he would send Lark with one of the Storm Hawks, mostly Piper, to get whatever was missing. But he had forgotten this time, after Lark wanted to show off the new calf that was born two days before and Ace had followed along to help explain what was needed for a baby calf’s care.

It’s just as the bell to the school is ringing that Ace pulls up next to Lark’s skimmer. He gets several odd looks, but this isn’t the first time he’s shown up at the school. The teachers all know he’s Lark’s elder brother, but he’s still strange, when in the height of summer, he shows up in a cloak that covers him entirely. The Storm Hawks claimed he was a shut in and shy and screw them for coming up with such barbaric lies! But it’s a good cover, especially when he shows up to a school looking suspicious.

He waits longer than usual for Lark to show up, but maybe she’s made new friends and if she has then he doesn’t mind telling her they can go to the market another day, make her favorite dinner another night. But it isn’t any school friends she comes out with, instead it’s a man. He looks older, with dull brown hair and wrinkles that cover a surprisingly attractive, yet wrinkled face. It’s an almost familiar face, but chalks it up to a familiarity of seeing him on one of his earlier visits.

Lark sees him almost immediately. He is a spot of black and grey in an otherwise sunny and colorful environment. She’s already smiling, but when she sees him, her smile broadens impossibly wide and Ace can’t help smiling back.

“Ace! You’re hear.” He can’t bare the thought of berating her for using his name in public. They had decided on some plain name for him to go by, a name to put on documents that, as Lark’s guardian, he needed to sign for her to get into school.

She doesn’t run over to him as she usually does, instead walks at a quicker pass so that she doesn’t seem rude, leaving behind the man, possibly her teacher, while she goes to greet her brother. It doesn’t matter because the man looks up and blue eyes are taking in Ace just as soon as the name leaves the girls mouth.

Ace gives it up to surprise at the girl’s loud tone and doesn’t think much of it. Lark is reserved at best and sedated at worst, hearing her talk louder than a quiet hum must be a shock to anyone who hasn’t known her long enough.

It seems he doesn’t have to remind the girl about his name when she gets up to him, pauses, winces and then returns to smiling and says, “Oops.” Quietly before saying louder, mocking him with her childish giggles, “I’m glad to see you out of the house for once, did the farm burn down?”

He reaches out and ruffles her hair, “Don’t tempt me.” He chides back.

It takes this small amount of banter before the man behind Lark has recovered his steps and walks up beside Lark. The man looks noticeably stiffer then when Ace had first seen the man walk out with Lark. Again, Ace chalks this up to seeing him for the first time. After all, this is a school yard and Ace looks like the unsavory kind that usually aren’t allowed within a hundred feet of a school.

“You must be…Mister Aaron, I’ve heard so much about you. I am assuming you are Lark’s brother, that is?” The man holds out his hand and Ace shakes it, a smile coming to his own face because this must be Mister Phoebus.

“I am.” He says, and he finds it strange that this man doesn’t seem to want to meet his eyes, but he doesn’t judge, “You are Mister Pheobus. Lark has also said a great deal about you.”

Lark looks between them, back and forth as if she’s missing something until she finally says to Ace, “You’re making this weird.”

Ace ruffles her hair once more, “It was a pleasure meeting you.” Then to Lark, “Aarrow forgot some supplies that we need to pick up from the market.”

Her broad smile is back. She gives a final goodbye to her teacher before straddling her skimmer and taking off right after Ace.

“You made a terrible first impression.” She tells as soon as they are in the air, “You said the ‘hello’ part correctly but after that, Piper said that good conversation comes from small talk. You should have asked how he was doing or something along those line, not stand there awkwardly and hope for the best.”

“But that is what I do best.” He tells her flatly and she roles her eyes.

This is what Ace enjoys so much about living such a normal life. He finally feels like himself again, without the restrictions of being the Talon Commander, without being Master Cyclonis’ right hand. He’s just a regular twenty-five-year-old, raising his fifteen year old sister and a brother who comes to visit whenever he damn well pleases. He enjoys that his biggest worry is monitoring Lark’s evenings out with Piper and whether or note they get the right amount of rain for the plants and animals.

All in all, Ace is enjoying the peace.

It’s just a shame peace never lasts.


End file.
